This invention applies to cellular point-to-point short messaging service (SMS) and the maintaining of a status field associated with a short message. The purpose of the status field is to track the message""s state from creation until delivery to a destination, and in some systems, until a reply back is received by the originator.
The Global System of Mobile Communications (GSM) standard defines a status field associated with each short message, which is maintained by a mobile station (MS) to track the status, or state, of the message. That is, the information indicates if the message has been sent, if it is a mobile originated message, or if the message has been read, for a received message. A short message and its associated status are stored in a Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) smart card, which is placed in a mobile communications device, or mobile station. This arrangement has the advantage that if the SIM is moved to another MS, the second MS will also know and understand the status of the messages originated by the user using the initial MS. Another advantage is that any application on the MS which interfaces with a SMS will have a standard definition of the status of a short message.
The short messaging service is a feature of GSM and GSM related systems, such as DCS1800 and PCS1900, and is also a feature of IS-95 and IS-136, the standards for United State of America Digital Cellular Systems. The protocol for sending and receiving are similar in these systems, which makes the status definition applicable to many SMS capable systems.
The current GSM short message service defines a status field in the SIM that identifies the status of a short message. This definition is currently limited to describing a message as received by, or originated from the MS, and provides an indication of whether the message has been sent or not, and whether or not-the message has been read by the recipient. The current GSM definition is provided in Table 1, below, from Technical Specification GSM 11.11, in Elementary File (EF) short messages.
Table 1 contains information in accordance with TS GSM 11.11 comprising short messages, also referred to herein as a basic message status set, and associated parameters, which have either been received by the MS from the network, or are to be used as an MS originated message.
The status field definition contains a status byte of a record which may be used as a pattern in the SEEK command, a SIM operation. It is encoded as shown in Table 2.
The REMAINDER data item commences with the TS-Service-Center-Address as specified in TS GSM 04.11. The bytes immediately following the TS-Service-Center-Address contain an appropriate short message Transport Protocol Data Unit (TPDU) as specified in TS GSM 03.40, with identical coding and ordering of parameters. This invention expands upon the status definition defined in the GSM system.
References to pertinent GSM SMS standards are found in Digital Cellular Telecommunications System (Phase 2+); Specification of the Subscriber Identity Modulexe2x80x94Mobile Equipment (SIMxe2x80x94ME) interface (GSM 11.11), European Telecommunications Standards Institute;
Digital cellular telecommunications system (Phase 2+); Technical realization of the Short Message Service(SMS) Point-to-Point (PP) (GSM 03.40), European Telecommunications Standards Institute;
TIA/EIA/IS-136.1 800 MHz TDMA Cellular-Radio Interface-Mobile Station-Base Station Compatibility-Digital Control Channel, Electronic Industries Association; and
TIA/EIA/IS-6.37 Short Message Services for Wideband Spread Spectrum Cellular Systems, Electronic Industries Association.
An improved system of short message tracking in a wireless communications network, wherein a tracking system includes a status field bit definition having an 8-bit field wherein only three bits of the status field are used in a basic message status set, wherein the basic message status set consists of free space; used space; message received by MS from networkxe2x80x94message read; message received by MS from networkxe2x80x94message to be read; MS originating messagexe2x80x94message sent to the network; and MS originating message to be sent as text; the improvement including an enhanced message status set including the basic message status set and an extended message status set, wherein all eight bits of the status field bit definition are used.
The method of the invention includes enhancing the message status set, which further includes: forming the basic message status set; defining a set of extended message tracking definitions which use all eight bits in the status field bit definition; and forming the set of extended messages tracking definitions, wherein the basic message status set and the extended message status set comprise an enhanced message status set.
An object of this invention is to provide additional tracking information for SMS.
A further object of the invention is to provide a user of a GSM device with enhanced message status information.
Another object of the invention is to expand the status field associated with SMS.